Dexa V03sept

Rodrigo Sandoval-AlmazanUniversidad Autónoma del Estado de México.J. Ramón Gil-GarcíaCentro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE)

Agenda

Motivations Literature Review Methodology Findings Limitations

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Problem:

We know very little about the quality and results of the Legislative Web sites, contrasting with e-government websites, which many of them are measured, assessed, and improved in a regular basis.

Based on the case of the local legislature of the State of Mexico, this paper proposes an approach to understand and evaluate legislative Web sites.

Sandoval-Gil-Garcia DEXA EGOV-2009

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• In a similar context, some previous work has been made on e-democracy, particularly about citizens’ participation.

For example Tauro (2008) has made research on blogging, Nelimarkka (2008) on citizens’ participation through mobile phones.

Kim (2007) has explored that young adults that are affiliated to local groups express online political and civic engagement.

However, most previous research has studied citizens’ interaction with executive government entities.

There are very few previous studies such as Lazer (2005). Setälä & Grönlund (2006) analyze the contents of the parliamentary websites in 18 democratic.Esterling (2007) gathered data from the official websites of the US Senate to examine.Esterling (2007) conducted a more formal study of deliberation sessions with members of the congress.


Comparative Chart

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E-government Web Site Congress Web Site

Main Objective

Information and Transactions

Information and Interaction

UsefulnessTime reduction an online

transactionsPrecise information and

legislative debate of bills-

Citizen Relationship

Try to be complete and holistic

Bi-directional

ValueGovernment efficiency

and public imageSocial participation and

public image

ServicesTax payment, Public servants directory;

forums, e-learning, video

Laws updating, congressman interaction

with citizens; civic culture, online debates.

In this research, the unit of analysis is the Congress of the State of Mexico. The State of Mexico is in the center of Mexico, is one of the biggest states which population reaches more than 12 million.


PILOT STUDY

The first collection of data Interviews were held between March and April of 2008. We conducted an exploratory survey among 50 persons; we directed our interviews to law students, middle level public servants, and some congress staff.

QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY

Second collection of data was held by a direct survey among citizens randomly selected.

28 Interviews were held between May and June of 2008, 16 cases were female (57%) and 12 men (43%).


INFORMATION MUST CONTAIN THE LOCAL CONGRESS WEB SITE

The highest rate (94%) was updating laws.A research engine and legislative debate, both with 86 percent of mention.

Online bills debate which gets the highest score (75%), online voting gets (46%) and interactive forums with congressmen (28%)

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INFORMATION MUST CONTAIN THE LOCAL CONGRESS WEB SITE


WEB SITE CHARACTERISTICS

94 percent mentioned that quality content.

Logic organization of the web site (82%)

Search engine capabilities (53%)

Under 30 percent aspects like images, type and size of letter and general design

MAIN RESULTS

1. Interviewees have at least visited an electronic government portal previous to the focus group, which enables them to perform a better assessment of the legislative portal.

2. The most important features of a web content quality, logic design, and search engine. This is consistent with previous research.


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•1.Questions in the following questionnaire must be focused on the following elements:

• Information Quality,• Looking for updated law or new bills, • Rule-making and decisions among congressmen

publicized on the website; • 2. Bidirectional relationships among citizens and congressmen supported by the need of forums or chats.

•3.Questions to understand what kind of features of social networks websites must be adapted to the Congress Web site.


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4. Results of the first exploratory survey administered to users of the web site were confirmed by non-users surveys made previous the focus group experiment.

Both surveys confirm that content is more important than format), although format and design are also important components.

These contributions will enable our study to be more focused for the next stage (focus group), and provides directions to develop a more effective legislative web site.


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1. Sample for the survey.

2. Type of study. A survey cannot explore fine aspects that can be understand only through a focus group or interviews. This will corroborate with another studies and future research.

3. There is not enough previous research about this topic. Most existing research is theoretical or focuses on e-government and public administration.

Further research is needed to understand the evolution, features, and behavior of these web sites.


Questions?

Rodrigo [email protected]

Jose Ramón [email protected]

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Legislative Web Sites

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Dexa V03sept

Education

Transcript of Dexa V03sept